PuressenceUK Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 I pay my council tax to get my bins emptied, as I personally get naff all else for the £110 a month. Disabled kids protection should come out of central taxation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
espadrille Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Not sure it's quite as easy as that as the council have an obligation to do both and a lot more besides. The real question is just what can be cut without too much impact? For example, I would argue that the highest paid council employee (£184,585 according to the Star today) could and indeed should take a minimum pay cut of £100,000 and everyone below him/her be scaled pro rata. That would save a huge amount of money. On top of that, you could probably cut one if not two complete layers of management with no discernable impact. Then look to share offices, resources, move to cheaper premises, flexible working pattens and all before you have even started to talk about cutting a single front line job. Then there are all the diversity officers and goodness knows how many other non jobs to clear out. I'm sure others will have loads of ideas about specific non jobs that have been created that are just a waste of precious money. I like the Singapore model of tiny government, low taxes and high personal responsibility. The results achieved since the sixties are simply amazing and could, given a complete change of approach, work here too. However, the secret to everything is the creation of millions of new jobs that pay a living wage. How we do that under the current regime is challenging if not impossible and that spells trouble for all of us. http://www.brookson.co.uk/news-and-press/DirectNews/2011/January/Windfarm-plant-to-create-10000-jobs-in-Hull/ Not millions here but thousands so some good news at last! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxman Posted January 21, 2011 Author Share Posted January 21, 2011 I pay my council tax to get my bins emptied, as I personally get naff all else for the £110 a month. Disabled kids protection should come out of central taxation. But indirectly it does. Central Government provides funds to local Government. These funds, plus our council taxes, are what the council has to spend. The choice the council then has to make is how to spend that money. If central government wants the money they provide to go to certain, identifiable things then maybe they should pay for these services directly rather than letting councils make their own priorities. There needs to be a level of accountability as well. At the moment a council that withdraws respite care can blame central govt for cutting their budget, but at the same time central govt can blame the council for choosing to spend the money on other stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willman Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Wow. I only included a poll for a bit of a laugh because I thought the question was such a no brainer. I foolishly assumed that people would value the health and wellbeing of disabled children and their parents over the inconvenience of only getting their dustbins emptied every two weeks instead of one. 87.5% see the bins as more important so far. Oh well. I'm with you. I hate recycling and multiple giant bins with a vengenace, but i feel that if we can offer medical support to druggies and drunks and people wanting bigger/smaller boobs but not to more medically challenged people then as a nation we're seriously screwed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucifer Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 I'm with you. I hate recycling and multiple giant bins with a vengenace, but i feel that if we can offer medical support to druggies and drunks and people wanting bigger/smaller boobs but not to more medically challenged people then as a nation we're seriously screwed Think of the environment, where ever that is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxman Posted January 21, 2011 Author Share Posted January 21, 2011 Think of the environment, where ever that is. Think of the children, won't somebody please think of the children? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PuressenceUK Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Think of the children, won't somebody please think of the children? I'm thinking of them emptying the bins. Could be a nice little earner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donnygirl Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Isn't this part of the con-dems big society plan where they expect charities to fill the gaps caused by job cuts and funding reduction? A charity might well help with disabled children but what charity would empty the bins? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxman Posted January 21, 2011 Author Share Posted January 21, 2011 Isn't this part of the con-dems big society plan where they expect charities to fill the gaps caused by job cuts and funding reduction? A charity might well help with disabled children but what charity would empty the bins? It also shows that decisions made at a remote level have severe and very personal effects. It's all very well talking about tightening belts, pulling together and efficiency savings but when it leads to a woman thinking about putting her child into care because funding has been cut then it becomes a little less of a theoretical problem....at least for her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strix Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 If packaging were taxed at source (similar to alcohol duty), that would create a better purchasing decision for many shoppers, thereby cutting the volume of rubbish we produce in the first place - else it's paid for already God knows what people are putting in their bins. Ours is full of disposable nappies but still only needs to go out once a fortnight The recycling goes in a second kitchen bin, and goes to the supermarket with the reuseable bags each week. Hardly a hardship. FFS, if putting a plastic bottle in a blue bin instead of a black can have that much impact on a child's and family's lives, why are some people so.... words fail me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.